I've seen people doing sideways runs in sports practice; maybe she was just doing that on the treadmill. We used to do side-scrambles like that in my Japanese MMA gym...you'd mirror a partner, and when someone clapped you'd have to reverse directions. I'm not sure how good this all is for general fitness, but it was sure tiring and helped improve our ability to reverse directions during a match.

So it's just like back pedaling in football practice. That seems pretty reasonable. She looked like she knew what she was doing, and i was really curious, but i'm not going to be THAT creepy guy that asks her in the gym... Ugh that guy.

Saw a guy today doing a Crossfit circut, if that's the right word for them. Ended up chatting with him for awhile about it. He said he has been doing them for a month or so and is still getting stronger even though he doesn't touch anywhere near his 5RM let alone his 1RM.

I'm thinking about growing a set and giving it a shot. Being dead for two days after 25 mins of working out seems to be a pretty productive way to use your time.

You could always ask her next time you see her and she's done. Just be nice, keep on the subject, and let it go. Hard to be creepy if you're sticking to "I saw you running sideways on the treadmill, and you seem to really know what you're on about. What's the benefit of doing that?"

If you're staring at her chest when you ask, though, it's creepy.

***

As for crossfit, if you like the idea of metcons, take a look at this framework - gymnastics + max effort lifts + short crossfit circuits/metcons:

Erik, speaking of crossfit, nice little program, but IMHO not enough ME work. Pete gave a good link to one way to handle it. Here is another way. http://coachrut.blogspot.com
He uses what he calls an ME blackbox approach., where he focuses on a 5X5 or similar for one lift, once weekly, and use 3 lifts in the course of a week. Each heavy lifting session for the chosen lift is followed by a 10 min follow on metcon. His exaple is 3 months long.In his archives, they start on Jan 01 2008. Just an interesting thought, as it sounds like you're more into strength, but desire some of the suck it up style of "circuits" the crossfitters do. I use coach ruts blackbox as a rough guideline and love the mix of conditioning with strength work.
Tim

Yeah as i sat there gassed after doing deads I started thinking that for singles i could go up 40lbs, but for reps, i was at my max. I had snoped around the crossfit stuff a few times, and then I saw someone in "real life" doing it, and he has nothing but great things to say.

My first, and basically uneducated, plan was to rotate strenght v. fit around every 4 weeks, but i'm going to look into both links after i pass my test on wednesday.

Good luck on your test. As to strength v fit, just one thing to consider. IF you specialize every 4 weeks, you will get better at both during that period, HOWEVER, when going to the other specialization mode, you will loose some of what you started with from the first specialization. One of the pitfalls of periodization. Whereas, with a conjugate method (using both), you may not gain as fast in both areas, but will probably retain it better. Just something to think about.
Tim